Customer Reviews

Xantrex Technologies 852-2071 Xpower AC/DC Powerpack Solar With 400 Watt Inverter, Two AC Outlets, USB Port, And Digital Display

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

If the Xantrex Xpower Powerpack Solar lived up to its specifications, I would rate it 5 stars and consider it well worth the money. That's why I bought it in the first place. Unfortunately, its performance falls short of the manufacturer's claims.

The overall design of the product is very nice. I had considered building something similar based on a how-to article in Popular Science, but the Powerpack is so nicely packaged for only a couple dollars more, I chose to buy it.

The Powerpack disappoints in the amount of energy stored in its battery that is available to power other electronic devices. The battery is specified as 12 volts and 10 amp-hours. As such, I was expecting to get as much as 120 watt-hours from it, but I barely get half that.

As a test, I fully charged the battery using the included AC adapter. By "fully", I mean the unit claimed to be charged. I then ran the built-in LED lights. The manual claims they should run for 48 hours. They ran 27.5 hours for me.

I assumed this performance reflected a bad unit and exchanged it. The new unit performs similarly. Either the battery in the unit performs poorly, or the electronics to monitor and control the battery state-of-charge are weak.

As another example of the poor performance, I charged the unit completely (again based on its built-in indicator that charging is done). It indicated 100 percent charge when I turned on the AC or DC output, but as soon as I plugged in any load, it almost immediately dropped to 70 or even 60 percent. Soon after the unit's indicator dropped to 40 percent, the unit shut itself down.

So, on the one hand, this is a nice unit to carry around, and it does slowly-but-surely charge the internal battery using the included 5 watt solar panel. It does a fine job charging cell phones and iPods, and a barely acceptable job charging a notebook computer. Compared to its specifications, and for that matter my previous experience with the Xantrex Powerpack Mobile Mini, however, the product is a disappointment.

The product information should include these crucial tidbids, which you only find out AFTER buying (by reading the detailed owner's manual): 1) you cannot use it while you are charging it, and 2)if you want to charge it using the sun, it takes 45 HOURS (YES -- that's HOURS). I used it at an outdoor festival to power a laptop, and -- even thought the manual estimated it would last for up to 4 hours, it pooped out after 1.5 hours. After that, I unplugged and charged it in the sun for a while. It got a lot of interest from people at the festival, who thought it was cool. I think it's cool too. I just wish it worked better.

Many Cons
- Battery not "user replaceable" (User manual recommends throwing the whole powerpack out when the battery can no longer take a charge)
- If you do take the unit apart to replace the battery, it is an uncommon type not available at battery specialists.
- Solar panel is too small to adequately charge the unit. Useful only as a top-up charger.
- My unit has locked up twice, where the buttons and display do not work and you need to take it apart to disconnect then reconnect the battery to reboot the internal microcontroller.
- Very difficult to take apart (to reboot the unit or change the battery).
- AC power adapter puts out too much voltage, causing the unit to complain about an overvoltage situation when it is left plugged in when fully charged.
- Loses its charge quickly when not plugged in.
- LED lights on both sides of the unit are wired to come on at the same time. No switch to disconnect one bank to double the runtime as a light source.

As a warning, if you do have one, do not leave it off its charger for longer than about 1 month or you can damage the battery.

You can use it to charge your laptop, PDA and your cell phone. But it's not strong enough to even just power a 12" fan.

Length:: --:-- Mins

This is a great little unit, I have used it a few times to test just how long it lasts and it never failed to impress. The only problem with this unit is that the digital display is highly inaccurate in displaying the batteries charge level when anything is plugged in and the ac output of devices under 50 watts. I have not experienced any error code problems. I've used this unit to power a small table fan, a laptop computer and some other small draw items. Here are my run times:

Small ac table fan = 3-4 hours on low setting, 3 max on low setting

12 volt dc fan = 5-7 hours on only high setting (0.8 amps 10 watts from walmart)

13.3" macbook = 2.5 hours with lots of processing and display on full brightness
4 hours max with low brightness and light web browsing only (full battery)

acer aspire one = 5-6 hours on low brightness and light browsing (battery charged prior)
netbook


Items that will not run long on this powerpack:

1. powerful entertainment or gaming laptops

2. desktop computers

3. big ac fans

4. high draw dc appliances such as a dc coffee maker, hair dryer and spotlight

5. items with heating elements in general EX: coffee maker, heating blanket, electric heater of any sort (expect 3 min or less run time, just don't even try to plug any of the mentioned items in AT ALL!)

6. big lcd tv's or any crt tv (yes even the 13" rated for this product)


Items that will be damaged by this device due to modified sine wave ac output:

1. rechargeable batteries (your laptop will not be damaged because it has a special transformer (I.E. the power brick)

2. nightlights of any sort

3. rechargeable electric shavers

4. any devices that specify they will only work with pure sine wave power (grid power = pure sine wave. keep in mind that 99.9% of all powerpacks use modified sine wave for ac power)

Bottom line: Don't treat it as if it is a generator or as if you still have power coming in off the grid in an emergency, be conservative and it will last the night. If you have never owned a power pack like this, keep in mind it's just a battery and the solar panel won't make it function like a generator. If you don't know solar, keep in mind this unit has the largest possible solar panel that will fit on the unit, that doesn't mean it will charge in a day like your solar accent lights outside. A full day of sunlight will give you 10-20 percent of overall charge (use this to charge your cellphone or run the efficient built in lights at night). You need to charge this unit every 1-3 months. Failure to do so will cause the internal sla agm battery to sulfate and refuse to charge(your warranty is voided with xantrex for neglect). Realistically don't plug devices in that use more than 70-80 watts if you want reasonable run time (this is true with most powerpacks, even the huge ones). Large items should not be used at all in an emergency power situation. If you want more power and longer run times, buy a 400 watt inverter for your car (please don't kill your car's battery, start it up) or buy a $100-$150 2 cycle generator, especially if you need power for medical devices. This unit should last you at least 5 years before the battery needs to be replaced (10 ah agm battery, nut and bolt terminals, tall style battery = $29 online) A lot of powerpacks use this battery. My campbell hausfeld power pack with this battery is 3 years old and counting with the same battery (runs great too, no loss of power) and my past devices using sla batteries lasted an average 7 years before needing replacement. Treat your battery right and it can last just as long. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll try to respond asap or whenever I can check my inbox.

The Xantrex Powerpack holds a pretty good amount of electricity once charged, but the only problem is that it takes a very long time to get it to that point. If you are using the solar panel to recharge the battery, expect to have it out in full sunlight for DAYS to get a decent charge. Good idea, but should be able to recharge much quicker.

This has garnered a lot of very negative reviews partly due to unrealistic expectations and mostly because of bad product description.

It seems that a lot of the reviewers really expected to get the equivalent off a Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit along with a Xantrex Technologies 802-1500 XPower Powerpack 1,500-Watt Portable Backup Power System. This is unrealistic to the point of silliness.

Unfortunately the product description is misleading to the point of bordering on fraud. There is no mention that the 10 AMP hour battery takes 45 to 50 hours to recharge at 5 watts and that the AC charger is only about 10W and disables all the outputs but takes 20+ hours to charge the battery. Because the system shuts of at 40% the 10AH battery is really about 6AH and that should be mentioned in the product description as should the rather unreasonable requirement to charge for 48 hours before initial use.

As a 5W solar unit with a battery and nice status readouts its OK but the low amperage AC charger is a big drawback particularly as it can't be used with the outputs active. The AC power out is very dirty square wave and even the $40 inverter from Sam's produces much better quality (at 1000 watts) although still dirty. Can only be used for Laptops or other devices that have a hearty AC/DC power supply or are very tolerant of dirty power. Not a bad buy but given the overall capacities should either allow simultaneous use of the AC charger, produce better quality AC power out or be considerably cheaper. It works OK for what I bought it for which is recharging a laptop which is rather a power hog and cell phones. But I don't particularly recommend it.

BTW the packaging is nice you use a tab to release the top and once hats open the package splits into halves so you don't have to lift it out.

Look if you want to learn to use solar energy don't buy this product. Get a book and use that for starts. This products solar panel is only a 5 wat panel so you get nothing from the sun practically and you will always have to charge from the wall. This product sucks trust me and don't buy it.

Trying to go "green", we bought this just for a simple, minor power source while away from outlets. We used it twice since we've had it, to run a 12V dc fan rated at 10w and 0.8 amps. We also charged a small iPod speaker set. A few months ago while charging, the fan started running so I unplugged it. I just tried to charge it now with the AC adapter, and the fan started and the alarm sounded with an error message of E04, overload on AC outlets. ? Nothing was plugged into any of its outlets. I unplugged it from the charger but alarm continued to sound. None of the buttons did anything. After an hour with the alarm still sounding, I took it apart and disconnected the battery. I waited 1/2 hr and reconnected battery. The alarm immediately sounded non-stop for another 1/2 hr till I disconnected battery.
What a waste of $150. It was used twice, never abused, and it craps out. Our $50 battery backup from Sears is still going strong after years of use, with 2 DC outlets that will take a AC converter, it does what we need. And as a plus, it will jump our car battery.
Just a bad unit, or....

I like the unit. I just wouldn't pay over a hundred and thirty dollars for it. I got mine on eBay for eighty five, including S&H. It came NEW with all accessories and in the original box. The User Manual had been updated a year ago. I guess that means the battery may be as old. But the buyer never knows the age of the battery no matter who the seller is because it is not accessible.

While I like the Powerpack and do use it, many improvements are sure to be incorporated in future models. For one thing, the battery is not user replaceable. It may only last 5 years. I have given it 4-stars because I know the current cost of a 5-Watt mono Christal solar panel, a 10Ah AGM battery, and all the functions that come with this Powerpack. And it really is sturdy and very well built. If only they designed it so that (1)the user could replace the battery. . . and (2)users be able to use an additional battery and an additional solar panel.